Orlando Silva, Brazil’s sports minister, quit on Wednesday amid accusations that he took payoffs from groups chosen to work on Brazil’s massive sportsprojects.
Brazil will host the 2014 World Cup and Rio de Janeiro will host the 2016 Olympics, and Silva was the government’s point person on work related to the building of stadiums andinfrastructure. He is the fifth minister to leave amid corruption charges under President Dilma Rousseff, who took office in January. FIFA has been critical ofthe slow work on 2014 World Cup projects.
Rousseff has also battled with Ricardo Teixeira, the head of the Brazilian World Cup organizingcommittee. The controversial Teixeira, a member of FIFA’s executive committee and former son-in-law of ex-FIFA president Joao Havelange, ishimself being investigated by Brazil’s federal police on allegations of corruption.